With less than a fortnight left for the division of Andhra Pradesh to become formal and two different Governments set to take the charge, contours of new disputes and controversies between the two States have already started emerging.
Even as State Governor ESl Narasimhan approved a four-month budget for both the States to take care of their expenditure and a common admission procedure for higher educational institutions for the next 10 years, Telangana protagonists upped the ante.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is all set to become the first Chief Minister of Telangana met the Governor for the second consecutive day on Monday.
It is believed that KCR protested the issuance of a GO by the Chief Secretary PK Mohanty regarding the admissions in higher educational institutions continuing the past quota system.
Telangana supporters were unhappy with this common procedure, as it will continue to benefit the students of Seemandhra at the cost of Telangana students.
Sources said that KCR also discussed the issue of the allocation of civil service officers between the two States. The division of Government employees between the two States has also become a vexatious issue, as many employees of Seemandhra origin were not willing to be repatriated to their region and want to continue to serve in Hyderabad.
TRS leaders were also expressing apprehensions that the Telugu Desam Party president and Chief Minister-designate of Seemandhra may try to use his clout with the Modi Government at the Centre to harm the interest of Telangana in the process of the division of the State and change the status of Hyderabad.
While the city has been given the status of a common capital of the two States temporarily, KCR was suspicious that Naidu was trying to tinker with it. According to the sources, he told the Telangana Joint Action Committee to be ready for another round of struggle if Naidu tries to use his clout with Narendra Modi Government and change the status of the city either to permanent common capital or a Union Territory.
Telangana Joint Action Committee convenor Kodandaram has alleged that Naidu had issued a veiled threat to Telangana people. He was referring Naidu’s interview to a Telugu daily in which he predicted that the TDP will come to power in Telangana in 2019 or even before that. “This indicates that he would not allow the new dispensation that would take oath in Telangana to function smoothly,” he said.
Urging the people of Telangana to be vigilant, Kodandaram said, “Andhra rulers have been hatching one conspiracy or the other and the TDP supremo was one of them.”
Polavaram project, given national status by the UPA Government, was also emerging as a big irritant. While Naidu declared that he will complete the project in five years, Kodandaram questioned how could he do that when the project will displace a large tribal population in the areaIJ